The movement gets its name because it is seen as combining the emotional intensity and self-expression of the German Expressionists with the anti-figurative aesthetic of the European abstract schools such as Futurism, the Bauhaus and Cubism. Additionally, it has an image of being rebellious, anarchic, highly idiosyncratic and rather nihilistic.
In 1945, art critic Robert Coates of the New Yorker magazine first reported that a style of abstract art, largely devoid of representational subject matter and painted in a gestural and expressionist manner, was gaining ascendancy in America. As the first truly original school of painting in America, Abstract Expressionists rejected the narrative and representational styles, widespread public appeal, and political views of 1930s. Instead, they pioneered improvisational modes of art focused on the physicality of media and personal expression. Despite their differing stylistic preferences, Abstract Expressionist artists such as Mark Rothko and Louis Bourgeois were generally allied in aesthetic and technical experimentation, a focus on the creative process, the use of art as a means of self-realization, the separation of art and popular culture, and the rejection of art for public or social purposes. By the 1960s, the movement had lost most of its impact, and was no longer so influential. Movements which were direct responses to, and rebellions against, abstract expressionism had begun, such as pop art and minimalism.